• Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her closing arguments in a speech at the Ellipse in Washington D.C. — where then-President Donald Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to march to the Capitol – to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Stef Kight, political reporter for Axios, breaks down the pitch Harris is making to voters in the final week of the presidential race. The fallout from Trump’s anti-Puerto Rican remarks in Madison Square Garden continues. The chairman of the Puerto Rico GOP said he won’t vote for Trump unless he apologizes. The Archbishop of Puerto Rico, Roberto O. González Nieves, has also asked Trump to “personally apologize” for the comments. But Trump did not.
• And in headlines: Steve Bannon was released from federal prison, the Supreme Court actually rejected R-F-K junior’s attempt to get off Michigan and Wisconsin’s ballots, and the Israeli Parliament passed two laws that would cut ties with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

• Check out Stef’s work – https://www.axios.com/authors/stefwkight
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• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Wednesday, October 30th. I’m Jane Coaston. And this is What a Day, the show that also turned down $3 million to appear at Donald Trump’s Madison square garden rally just like rapper 50 Cent, but for different reasons. Don’t worry about it. [music break] On today’s show, meet the school superintendent candidate fighting for students. His opponent wants to see former President Barack Obama executed on television. And no, I am not joking. But first, Vice President Kamala Harris delivers her closing arguments in a speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C.. Her campaign said more than 70,000 people showed up to hear her speak. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] It is time for a new generation of leadership in America. [cheers] And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America. [cheers] 

Jane Coaston: We’ve mentioned it a few times on the show already, but the Ellipse is also where about four years ago, then-President Donald Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to march to the Capitol to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A pretty shitty move, in my view, but the location was symbolic of the argument Harris has been making in the closing days of her campaign that actually we don’t have to do that again. We don’t have to do another four years of Trump and Trumpism again because we have another better alternative. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is. But America, I am here tonight to say that is not who we are. That is not who we are. 

Jane Coaston: Harris also tried to thread that very delicate needle of talking about Trump while also making sure her speech wasn’t all about him. Sure, she hit all the points she’s been making recently that Trump is unstable, that he’s driven by revenge and that he wants unchecked power. But she contrasted her economic proposals with Trump’s and pledged to seek common ground if elected. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] Here’s what I promise you. I will always listen to you, even even if you don’t vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it is difficult to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done. [cheers] And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way. [cheers]

Jane Coaston: For more on Harris’s speech, I spoke with Stef Kight, political reporter at Axios. We talked about the pitch Harris is making to voters in the final week of the presidential race. Stef Kight, thank you so much for joining me on What a Day. 

Stef Kight: Thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: To start out, what struck you most about Harris’s remarks? 

Stef Kight: You know, I think just the setting of the entire speech was what really stood out to me. This was very different from what we’ve seen from Harris in the past. It was you know very striking to see her standing in front of the White House and, of course, standing where Trump stood right before January 6th, when the former president called on his supporters to march on the Capitol. That was a very effective tool for Harris, and she used that. It was very clear that her goal in this speech, her campaign’s goal was to paint a clear contrast between her and the former president. And she happened to have not only the setting to do that, but also this came after the former president’s Madison Square Garden speech, which was just full of, you know, very crude language, a lot of hate, a lot of aggressive kind of messaging. And so she really took a different tone here. And I think, you know, she landed that argument. 

Jane Coaston: What were some of your biggest questions going into her speech? 

Stef Kight: You know, I was really curious how much she was going to really focus on the January 6th moment, how much she was going to really hit the democracy topic. And I was surprised that it did not take out the majority of the speech. Um. It really was more of the setting, an offhanded comment. She did touch upon it. She did draw that contrast. But she really tried to present her full appeal to the American people. I was surprised at how many different topics she tried to hit on. It really was a closing argument, which is what they said she was going to do. I was surprised by how much she tried to appeal to moderate voters. There were a few moments where she tried to reach across the aisle where she tried to paint herself as the candidate who would be willing to accept people who disagree with her. So, you know, I was expecting more on the Jan 6th issue, and I think we got a much broader campaign speech from her. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, there’s been a ton of debate among Democrats over whether Harris is leaning too much into talking about Trump and whether he’s a fascist or whether they should be talking more about a positive message about why people should vote for her. Do you think that what you mentioned is indicative that the campaign is taking those comments and concerns to heart? 

Stef Kight: Yeah it certainly felt like she was trying to respond to some of those criticisms, some of those questions that have been raised. And she kind of tried to do a little bit of both. Right. She was trying to draw a contrast with the former president. It’s clear that Democrats see that as their best pathway to the White House. It worked for Joe Biden in 2020. And they’re kind of sticking to that. They believe that by keeping some of the attention on the former president that it’s ultimately going to help them win the White House and down ballot races as well. But we also did see her kind of try to introduce herself to the American public as well. It’s not that dissimilar from the kind of campaign speeches she has been giving at her rallies, but because of the spot she chose it’s going to get a lot more play. There’s going to be a lot more discussion about this. Lots of networks were carrying the speech. So it really was a moment for her to try to um introduce herself to a lot of Americans that polling shows are not certain about her, aren’t clear on where she stands on policy issues they care about, aren’t confident in who she really is. So you saw her try to answer both of those questions. And I would note the one thing that stood out to me was the fact that once again, we did not see President Biden stand beside her, despite the fact that this was in front of the White House. It’s very notable that we have not seen the president campaign with the Harris campaign. And as Axios has reported, Biden has offered to do that. And the Harris campaign has kind of said, you know, we’ll get back to you. 

Jane Coaston: I was also interested by how much of a focus there was on the economy and on middle class homeowners and middle class voters. Do you think that that reflects more of that effort to talk about being a president for everyone? 

Stef Kight: For sure. And of course, we all know that when it comes to presidential politics, you know, it’s the economy, stupid. You know, you have to make the argument on the economy. Every polling we’ve seen for years indicates that the economy is one of, if not the number one issue for American voters. And she’s going to have to win over middle class, working class Americans in some of these battleground states, states like Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania. And so those are the kind of issues she has to be hitting if she’s going to win over those moderate voters. And, you know, it is an issue that the Biden administration has struggled with. And polling does indicate that Americans blame Biden, whether fairly or unfairly, for the fact that there have been rising costs in the U.S. And that’s something that they’ve been working very hard to move Harris away from and to put Harris as um the person who can solve those issues for average Americans. 

Jane Coaston: What do you think the speech tells us about what we can expect from Vice President Harris in the final week of the presidential race?

Stef Kight: I mean, I think we’re going to see a lot of what we’ve heard before. You know, in some senses, this wasn’t all that different from the argument she has been making from the beginning. This has of course, been a very short campaign, an abridged campaign compared to most election years. I think we’re going to continue to see them try to draw that contrast, saying that Harris is the person who is going to unite the country, who is going to calm temperatures, who is going to reach across the aisle, who is not going to um inflame tensions that are already high in the country. And I think as we get close to Election Day, many of us are starting to be concerned about that. We are remembering 2020. We are remembering the reaction to that, remembering June 6th. We’re seeing it online. We’re seeing the tensions on social media in our communities. And I think she is really trying to focus on that, drawing the contrast to, you know, former President Trump, who is already starting to plant seeds of doubt in the election process, plant seeds of doubt in um whatever the outcome may be. And Harris is very focused on that. And we’ve known that is going to be the number one issue for um Democrats this cycle. It was something Biden focused on and it is something Harris is continuing to focus on. And it’s very clear that this is going to be their closing argument in these final days. 

Jane Coaston: Stef Kight, thank you again for joining me today. 

Stef Kight: Thank you. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Stef Kight, political reporter for Axios. Meanwhile, if you thought that the fallout from Trump’s Sunday afternoon, Madison Square Garden, anti Puerto Rican malevolent melee would be over by now, you were wrong. It turns out insulting millions of voters a week before a presidential election is a bad idea. And that’s not just me saying that. So does the chairman of the Puerto Rico GOP, who said on a Puerto Rican talk show he won’t vote for Trump unless he apologizes for the remarks made by a comic at his big New York City rally calling Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. 

[clip of the chairman of the Puerto Rican GOP] [speaking in Spanish] If Donald Trump doesn’t apologize, I won’t vote for him. 

Jane Coaston: The archbishop of Puerto Rico, Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, has also asked Trump to personally apologize for the comments. Even former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who was supporting Trump, told Fox News that the comments weren’t helpful. 

[clip of Nikki Haley] This is not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos. This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they’ve got going. 

Jane Coaston: Trump spent most of his Tuesday in Pennsylvania, the home to about half a million people of Puerto Rican heritage. Despite the backlash, Trump held a rally in Allentown. Matthew Turk, the city’s Democratic mayor, told Fox News that the comments could damage Trump in this politically purple area of the state because telling voters that the place where they’re from and where their family might still live is a garbage heap is bad. 

[clip of Matthew Turk] Allentown is a majority Latino city, and the majority of our Latino population has its roots in Puerto Rico. So people heard uh the campaign saying some terrible things about a place that is near and dear to our hearts. And I think that might push people who might have been sitting on the couch out to vote and vote for vice President Harris. 

Jane Coaston: But, of course, Donald Trump did not apologize for what was said in New York City. First, he denied knowing what the comic said and said he didn’t even know who he was. But he did have this to say about the Sunday night rally. 

[clip of Donald Trump] And I tell you what, right now, nobody’s ever had love like that. That was love in the room and it was love for our country. 

Jane Coaston: And he reiterated the same point at his evening rally in Allentown and bragged about the success of his MSG rally. 

[clip of Donald Trump] –Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. And we had had a ball. That was the greatest evening anyone’s seen politically. I mean, Madison Square Garden is really big. 

Jane Coaston: Yes, Madison Square Garden is really big. Other than that, however, once again, Donald Trump is lying. That’s the latest for now. We’ll get to the news in a moment. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: And now the news. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of Steve Bannon] And I’m finally out of being a political prisoner by the Merrick Garland, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi regime for standing up for my political beliefs. 

Jane Coaston: Steve Bannon got out of federal prison on Tuesday after serving out a sentence for contempt of Congress. Bannon, a longtime ally of Trump, was convicted earlier this year for his refusal to testify before Congress in 2021. He was subpoenaed by the House in the investigation into the January 6th threats. Bannon tried to delay his sentence several times before surrendering to a Connecticut prison in July. And once he became a free man, he wasted no time holding a press conference to talk his shit about Democrats, particularly former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. 

[clip of Steve Bannon] I am more empowered today, more focused today, sharper today, in better shape today than I’ve ever been in my entire life. So Nancy Pelosi, suck on that. 

Jane Coaston: I’m pretty sure Nancy Pelosi doesn’t need to be living in his head rent free, but like she is. Bannon was also quick to get back on the mic to record a new episode of his podcast, Bannon’s War Room, to urge his listeners to vote for Trump. 

[clip of Steve Bannon] This show has never been more powerful. The voices behind it have never been more powerful. The audience has never been more powerful. And we’re going to deliver a knockout blow to your progressive insanity on five November, and then we’re going to secure the deal after that. 

Jane Coaston: Couple of things here. One, no one says five November in the United States. Two, I don’t think he knows what job Nancy Pelosi has or had. And three, I do not know what deal we’re securing, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be involved. Speaking of Nancy Pelosi, the man who attacked the former House speaker’s husband, Paul, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This is the second major prison sentence handed down to David DePape, who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer after breaking into the couple’s San Francisco home in 2022. In May, a federal judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison for the attack. Then there’s stiffer sentencing comes from a California state judge during both trials, DePape’s lawyers argued that he had been a law abiding citizen prior to the attack. They asked the judges to consider his mental health issues that they claim made them more susceptible to online propaganda. When addressing the court before his most recent state sentencing, DePape talked about 9/11 conspiracy theories and claimed to be psychic. The election is just a few days away, but Republicans are already deep in their let’s sue everyone phase of electioneering. Most of their efforts have been focused on purging voter rolls because the fewer people who can vote, the better it is for Republicans. But on Tuesday, federal judges in North Carolina and Pennsylvania and even the Supreme Court of the United States told Republicans, not so fast. In North Carolina, the GOP was seeking extra verification for roughly 225,000 voters. But the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals would not allow a state court to review the case and brought it back to a federal court that is unlikely to make a decision before Election Day. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit where several Republican members of Congress tried to overhaul how the state handles overseas ballots. And in a surprising move, the Supreme Court actually rejected RFK Junior’s attempt to get off the Michigan and Wisconsin ballots, an effort clearly designed to help Donald Trump. This is good news for voters. And now it’s up to them and us to vote. Palestinian health officials say two Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza killed nearly 90 people Tuesday, including dozens of women and children. And on Monday, the Israeli parliament passed two laws that would cut ties with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the primary U.N. agency providing humanitarian aid in Gaza. One of those laws bans UNWRA from, quote, “any activity inside Israel.” The second law severs diplomatic ties with the agency. The laws won’t fully go into effect for another three months. The Biden administration has warned they could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That warning was echoed by Unicef spokesperson James Elder. 

[clip of James Elder] If [?] is unable to operate, it would likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza. Unicef would become effectively unable to distribute lifesaving supplies. Here I’m talking vaccines, I’m talking winter clothes, I’m talking hygiene kits, health kits, water. So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children. 

Jane Coaston: Israel has justified the new laws by saying some members of Unwra were involved in Hamas’s October 7th attacks. The U.N. Humanitarian Office has said the laws would constitute collective punishment of Gazans if implemented. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing. As we’ve said many times before, Election Day is just around the corner. And today we’re highlighting another race that may be low on your ballot but has a high impact over in North Carolina. The state superintendent of public education seat is up for grabs. This is the equivalent of a school principal, but like a mega principal for every public school in the state, ideally the person in the seat is a good, normal person, like Democratic candidate Maurice Mo Green, whose platform centers around fighting to improve the lives of students and their teachers. Not his opponent, Republican Michele Morrow, a MAGA extremist who said she wants President Barack Obama to be publicly executed. Oh and she was at the Capitol rally on January 6th with her kids. The race between Green and Morrow is far too close for comfort. Recent polling shows that Green only has a slight lead of 2.5 points. Green joined us to talk about the job he’s running for and why we should tune in to our local school board elections. Mo, thank you for coming on What a Day. 

Mo Green: It’s great to be here. Thank you. 

Jane Coaston: Now, we know that conservatives have focused a ton on school board elections. They did in the 2022 midterms, and they’re doing so now. These are the people who want to ban books written by people of color or about queer people and having no discussions of critical race theory or race at all under the guise of parental rights. So tell me a little bit about your opponent, the conservative you’re up against, Michele Morrow, I was reading an article about her and she believes that Satan is in cahoots with Democrats? Whatever that means. I have not cahooted with Satan personally. So what does she stand for and what does she want to do if she’s elected? 

Mo Green: My opponent, she homeschools her children. Nothing against homeschooling, if that’s what you choose to do. But my wife and I were blessed to have two children. We chose to put our children in our public schools as opposed to my opponent. She has said that our public schools have also been taken over by Satan. She calls our public schools as absolute cesspools of evil, lies, and deception. Took her own children to the attempted insurrection on January 6th, 2021. Comes back from that. And the same evening where there’s literally been loss of life and says essentially Donald Trump, you’re in office two more weeks. How about you set aside the US Constitution? Bring in the military by invoking the Insurrection Act and arrest folks for treason? Has called for the executions of many and even the execution by pay for view of President Barack Obama. So one thing that we’ve done, given who she is and trying to be sure folks understand her, is we’ve created a website you can go to it, it is called ABCMorrow.com. Every letter is something that she has put out there. And believe me, if you get through Z, you would go, do we want this person next to and leading our children? She wants to abolish the state Board of Public Education. She has said so many things that just suggest that she wants to really, I think, get right to the core of whether we want to have public education in North Carolina. 

Jane Coaston: So election day obviously coming up very quickly. The polls have consistently shown that you and Michele Morrow are, it’s a very tight race. You’ve described your race as one where, quote, “the soul of public education is on the line.” How is your campaign organizing to get people to the polls and get them invested in school board elections? Especially because I think that there are a ton of voters who aren’t parents and might not think these races have anything to do with them, even though I strongly believe if you care about kids, you care about school boards. 

Mo Green: We’re connected with lots of different organizations who are doing things like canvasing. We’ve got now poll greeters because there’ll be lots of folks, as you might imagine, who will come in. They know who they’re voting for for president. They may know who they’re voting for for governor, but then there’s typically a significant drop off. So we actually have identified key locations where we do have poll greeters to provide last minute information to folks there as well. We get folks to understand this is bigger than simply whether you have a child in school. 80 plus percent of the students who are eligible to go to school attend public schools in North Carolina. This is a huge driver for the kind of communities that we have and want to have. And so trying to be sure that folks understand that, as they consider myself and my opponent.

Jane Coaston: Mo, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. 

Mo Green: Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me on. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Mo Green, candidate for North Carolina superintendent of public education. [music break] 

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a review. Congratulate Steve Bannon on all the time he has to buy new shirts and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just thinking about how the comic who made the gross jokes at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally tried his whole routine at a comedy club the night before and totally bombed, which should have told him something, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and check the status of your ballot if you haven’t already. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production upstairs from Tyler Hill, Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. 

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